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ANOTHER DEAD BLACK MAN

Yesterday’s riots, looting
and burning in Baltimore, MD, are being forcibly condemned by the city’s Mayor,
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Maryland state
governor Larry Hogan and virtually everyone who is breathing.For the sake of argument, that’s a very
understandable reaction to the gangs of youths who rampaged through West
Baltimore streets following the funeral of Freddy Gray torching a couple of
police cars, injuring 16 officers, setting fire to a CVS and several more
establishments.Baltimore’s Mayor has
declared a state of emergency, instituted curfews and hundreds of Maryland
State Police and 500 Maryland National Guard troopers – with another 5,000
available for deployment - are now patrolling the streets.The situation is a mess.

Lost in all the pubic
condemnation, angst and teeth knashing over the riots, looting and flames
however, is the reason why they might be taking place. That reason is the death of 25 year old Freddie
Gray last week under suspicious circumstances after his arrest on April 12. His treatment in the hands of the police has
all but disappeared from the airwaves in the tsunami of righteous condemnation
over the riots. The train of events in
Baltimore are eerily similar to those in Ferguson, Missouri, following the
death of Michael Brown. In that case,
the Ferguson police department and its Chief of Police seemed to be
stonewalling, giving out little or no information about the circumstances
surrounding Brown’s shooting or the officer involved while ensuring that every
known damaging piece of information about Brown was public knowledge. Much the same is happening in Baltimore undoubtedly
giving rise to increased public suspicion.

Baltimore, however, is a
majority Black city, with a Black Mayor so one would think that these folks
would have a better grip on how the lack of timely information tends to
increase suspicion and tension among the public.In this case, like Ferguson, the facts of how
Freddy Gray managed to wind up with 80% of his spine severed at the hands of
six police officers or while being transported by the police remains
unanswered.The names of the officers
have not been released although they have been put on leave and we are told
only that “the incident is under investigation.”From the very beginning of this story two
weeks ago when Gray was arrested for “making eye contact with a group of off
duty and suspended police officers while in possession of a “switchblade knife”
(although that “fact” is disputed by his mother who says it was a legal pocket
knife) while “walking in a known high crime area” of West Baltimore.(Does this chain of events sound familiar to
you?)

The actions by the police
both during the arrest of Gray and the subsequent public statements by the
police, Baltimore and Maryland officials, have basically followed the Ferguson
model of providing the least information possible.I’m not sure what Mayor Rawlings-Blake and
the police were thinking, but their actions follow the same, sad, pathway of
Michael Brown, Eric Garner in New York City, 12 year old Tamar Rice in
Cleveland, and Tyree Woodson in Baltimore who, police allege, shot himself with
a gun they did not know he had while sitting in a Baltimore police station.

In a news conference
yesterday, the Baltimore Police Chief noted at least half-a-dozen times that 16
police officers – six seriously - had been injured by debris thrown by the
rioters, 35 rioters were arrested and the Baltimore police are reporting that
they have credible information that an alliance of gangs has formed to “take
out” cops.The African American leaders
of Baltimore appear to have decided to come down hard on the Black rioters and
arsonists declaring that they have video tapes from which they will identify
law breakers and arrest them.I suspect
that this show of force is designed to demonstrate that Baltimore’s Black
leaders can be even tougher on lawbreakers than the white leaders of Ferguson.

Lost in all the riot media
storm, is the video.We’ve all seen
it.When I first saw the video it looked
to me as if Gray was unable to walk under his own power and appeared to be in
pain given his screams as he was being dragged to a police van by two Police
Officers.We don’t know what happened,
if anything, prior to what we see on the video – the confrontation between Gray
and the six officers and his arrest.Other
than the fact that 80% of Gray’s spine was severed and he was in a coma for a
week following his arrest until he died, we don’t know how his spine was so
badly damaged.The Baltimore Police have
floated the notion that it might have happened as he was being transported in
the police van that made two stops before depositing Gray at a police station.It is alleged, not by the Police of course,
that van drivers make it a point to make such trips as rough as possible just
to give the occupants a taste of what’s to come in police custody.

By the way, Gray was no stranger to the local police as the police have admitted. He had a long list of charges against him but most are simple possession charges to which he pleaded guilty.

This “it might have happened
in the van” story conveniently absolves the six officers of any responsibility
for Gray’s injury and subsequent death.Me?I guess I’m not all that
trusting of our police forces.When I
saw the video and initial news reports, what immediately came to my mind was
that the cops got a little to energetic while bashing Gray in the back with
their police batons.

Unfortunately, as these
things usually go, we will never know why a 25 year old man had his spine severed
while in police custody and is dead as a result.

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